TNAG-1604-FCO40-2211-Future-of-Hong-Kong-annual-reports-to-Parliament-on-Hong-Kon-1988 — Page 25

RESTRICTED

Both

and that of the Regional Council over the New Territories.

Councils include elected and appointed members. To maintain close

connections between the district and regional levels of

representative government, members of the Urban Council sit as

members of District Boards in the urban area, whilst the New Territories District Boards elect members to sit on the Regional

Council.

The

18. The principal functions of the Legislative Council are to

enact legislation and control the expenditure of public funds. Council questions the Administration on matters of public interest and debates its policy proposals. Until 1985 the Council consisted of appointed members only. Following the principles laid down in

the 1984 Hong Kong Government White Paper on the Further Development of Representaîtve Government in Hong Kong, 24 members of the Council have, since 1985, been indirectly elected. Twelve are elected by an

electoral college, comprising all members of the District Boards and

the Urban and Region Councils; and twelve by functional constituencies representing professional and occupational groups in the community.

19.

In line with the commitment in the 1984 White Paper, the Hong Kong Government are undertaking a further review of progress in the development of representative government. In May 1987, a Green

Paper on the Review of Developments in Representative Government was

published by the Hong Kong Government for public consultation and

comment. This covered a range of options for the further development of all three tiers of representative government described above. A Survey Office was established to collect the

views of the public, whether from organised groups or individuals, on the issues raised in the Green Paper, and two independent Monitors were appointed by the Governor to oversee the work of the

Office. The public were given four months, until 30 September 1987,

to respond.

20. The interest shown by all sections of the public in the Green

Paper, and the level of their response to it in comments to the

Survey Office, were gratifying. During the four month period of consultation over 130,000 submissions were made to the Survey

RESTRICTED